Ekiti, APC differ on alleged ban of opposition campaign adverts

THE Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Tuesday accused  Governor Ayodele Fayose for allegedly  banning all its adverts and jingles on the state-owned media.

The party noted that it was illegal to stop the adverts that were fully paid for by clients.‎

APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said in a statement that the practice was a bastardisation of media professional ethic and abuse of contract agreement between the stations and their clients.

Olatubosun criticised the governor’s aide on Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, for ‎turning the stations into a personal property of his boss, arguing that before the latest ban on APC’s jingles in the stations, there had been many unprofessional practices by the stations, which were brought to the attention of the National Broadcasting Commission.

He said: “The stations have become a laboratory for manufacturing falsehoods against high ranking government officials in the Judiciary and Legislature perceived to be against Fayose’s administration.

“The stations in one of their news bulletins in November 2014 accused the Chief Judge, Mr. Justice Ayodeji Daramola, of collecting N200 million bribe from APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to influence the judge sitting on Fayose’s eligibility case to rule against him. About the same time, allegation that the 19 APC members of the House of Assembly demanded N135m from the governor was also broadcast on the stations. All these were without evidence.”

Meanwhile,  Olayinka has denied the claim, saying ” the allegation is not true. We have been using their adverts and jingles in as much as they are ready to pay the rate.

“Even as at this morning (Tuesday), if you listened to the stations, we still carried the adverts and jingles of the APC candidates.